Art and design

Art and Design at Great Linford Primary School

At Great Linford Primary School, we believe it is important to foster creativity and imagination in all our children. In Art and Design, we aim to provide experiences and skills in various different aspects of art and design: painting, drawing, sculpture, dance, drama, printing, pottery plus many more! We aim to provide unique opportunities for our children that enable them to express their creativity in their own way. Over the year, we weave art and design into our project based learning as well as our focused weeks such as Forest Fortnight.
​Artsmark
We have officially begun our Artsmark journey. We will be continuing to develop our Art provision across the school and our links with other schools. Check out the Artsmark website

​Drama and Dance
Over the year, we have been lucky to attend various productions at both the Milton Keynes Theatre and Stantonbury Theatre. The children have thoroughly enjoyed all our theatre experiences including: Awful Auntie, I believe in unicorns and The Little Mermaid performed by the Northern Ballet.

At Great Linford Primary we have not only been visiting the theatre, we have been creating our own productions! All the year groups have been working exceptionally hard and have produced outstanding plays and productions! See below for our upcoming production.

CookingWe work closely with the Kitts Academy to provide excellent experiences for children to develop their range of skills. Some skills we are currently developing:

Kitchen Safety

Chopping skills

Weighing and Measuring

Baking skills

Food Nutrition

This week Year 3 have been practicing their knife skills by chopping lots of different types of vegetables.

CompetitionsWe are lucky enough to be selected to take part as a school in many different art competitions. Below are details of some of the competitions we may be entering with selected year groups. ​

Working with Local ArtistsWe believe it is important to work closely with our local community and we are extremely lucky to work with amazing local artists and the Art Centre.

We frequently work with local potter Andy Macdermott who works with classes and runs a family pottery class. Andy has worked with all different year groups and focuses in on their current topic. The children thoroughly enjoy learning pottery with Andy and have produced amazing work! Please click here to see some amazing Year 4 Elizabethan pottery.

To show case the amazing art work we have been doing, we are lucky to have own own school gallery. Each half term it is updated with the projects each year group is working on and a wonderful selection of art happening across the school. Check out the gallery and see if your art has been chosen this time!

Projects we have been working on 2018/2019

Year 3 Winter Art

Year 3 have been looking at the artist Claude Monet, in particular his many winter scene landscapes. The children have looked closely at the painting 'The Magpie' unpicking the features and deciding what they would be able to smell, hear and see if they were there.

The children have been exploring tints of blues and created a winter themed background for their final piece. After developing their mark making skills, year 3 used charcoal and chalk to sketch local trees onto their brilliant backgrounds.

We are very proud of all the children and a selection of their work is currently being shown in St Andrews Church. Go and see these wonderful works of art!

Year 5 Sewing

Year 5 have been working very hard over the past few weeks to create their own space inspired patch using different sewing techniques. The children have been working hard to create their own space scene. They have used different materials to create planets, rockets, stars and even astronauts!

We will be displaying a selection of the children's work in our school art gallery in the main corridor. Well done year 5!

The BFG

Great Linford were fortunate enough to be visited by a theatre company in celebration of Roald Dahl Day 2018. Here we worked with a professional who showed up some warm-up techniques to get us into the swing of things. Then, to celebrate Roald Dahl Day we were given scenes from the novel 'The BFG' and had to act a freeze frame before then acting out the scene. We were taught to play not only human beings but also parts of the furniture, the room and even animals. We finished off the session by working as a whole class to act out a scene where Sophie escapes the giants. We had a lot of fun and learnt some new drama skills.

Victorian Toys

Year 5 have had an amazing few weeks creating their own Zoetrope's! What is a Zoetrope? It's a Victorian toy that spins around showing pictures as if they were moving much like a flip book. Year 5 have made their Zoetrope's from scratch using a variety of processes.

They designed their own moving picture to go inside and when they were finally finished, they gave them a spin! Check out their amazing creations below.

If you would like to make your own at home, click here to watch a great video with step by step instructions.

Remembrance Art

To commemorate Remembrance Day 2018, every year group across the school has produced beautiful artwork inspired by the poppy appeal. Each year group has been working with different mediums and techniques to show off the stunning poppies. ​

EYFS were inspired by using finger painting to create their poppy flowers. Year 1 created a beautiful wreath made from their hands and adorned with the poppy flower. Year 2 used tissue paper and green card. Year 3 created lifelike poppies made from paper and pipe cleaners. Year 4 used their pottery skills to create poppies. Year 5 put their sewing skills to the test by making handmade sewn poppies from felt. Finally, year 6 used collage techniques to create stunning big poppies.

The art work looks beautiful and complemented a beautiful assembly.

Stuart Houses

Year 6 have been looking at Stuart style buildings as part of their topic this term. We have been unpicking the features and comparing them to buildings we see today.

We then explored different clay techniques and put these into practice by creating the front view of a Stuart house. After letting them dry, we added paint to show the colours typical of the era.

Some children even pushed themselves by painting a separate picture of a Stuart house in their sketchbooks.

The Great Linford Bake Off #GLBO

To celebrate Roald Dahl day 2018, Great Linford put on their own Great Linford Bake Off. We were amazed at all the entries we received from our fantastic Great Linford families. All our entries were inspired by Roald Dahl, showing off some of his most famous books. We found it very tricky to decide however we chose a winner and a runner up in every class. Check out the great entries here.

Kite Making

Year 3 took part in a fantastic workshop making kites. They built the kites from scratch using just paper and straws. The children learnt the dynamics of what a kite needed in order to fly. After making the basic shape of their kite and placing straws for support, the children used crepe paper to make a soaring tail! Lastly, the children let their creativity flow and designed their soaring birds!

The children had a fantastic time making kites and even got to take one of their kite's home. Their other kites will be used in a set for a dance production.

Projects we have been working on 2017/2018

MK Gallery Young Architect 2018This year 4 children took part in the MK Gallery Young Architect 2018 competition. Liam (Yr6) Taiba (Yr6) Zavier (Yr3) and Alfie (Yr3) worked together to design a building for the MK Gallery's 'City Club' ideal, created in the 1970's. We are proud to announce that the children were the winners of their age group which is fantastic!

During the project, the children created a list of possible leisure buildings and then completed a survey across the playground to see which leisure building the children of Great Linford Primary would want built. After collecting the results, the children came together to produce a design for their indoor water park.

Over the week, and working with their design, the children used a variety of materials and techniques to construct their ideas into a 3D model. The children used a mixture of wood, paint, wire and clay to produce their model. All 4 children had a great time creating and building. They did a fantastic job at representing the school.

We then attended a special exhibition to announce the winner and we were very please to find out we had won! Well done Great Linford!

Weaving ProjectAs part of a heritage craft project at the Arts Centre in Great Linford, 8 of our Year 5 students have been lucky enough to be offered the opportunity to take part in a 5 week weaving workshop.

As well as gaining a new skill the children will learn and explore where the weaving style originates from.

Diwali Dance ProjectIn Year 4, we have had the fantastic opportunity to work with a dance company for a whole week. Here, we were taught the story of Diwali through Rama and Sita. We then spent the week learning an extensive routine showcasing the story. The children have had a chance to get creative making masks and diyas for the performance as well as being taught how to use their face, body, and voice to get into character. We have enjoyed getting into character and learning the correct facial expressions.

​Year 4 had a fantastic time performing to an audience at Milton Keynes Gallery. They were able to put all of their hard work into performing for the last time at this prestigious venue.

As some children were unable to attend, others were asked to take their place which meant learning new routines in a short space of time. The children were a credit to the school and should be very pleased with what they have achieved. It really was a great performance, one of which they won’t forget.